Keshav Murti Bhandar

We are based at Plot No. 3 in Hathighat, Agra. Our workshop is right near the Hathi Ghat Gurudwara, so we hear the morning prayers every single day. We are murti makers, working mostly with stone and marble. It is a very physical job and we spend most of our time outside or in the open shed, chipping away at large blocks of stone. Agra has a long history with stone carving, and we just follow in those footsteps. Our hands are always calloused and we usually have stone dust in our hair. We do not have a sales office or any polished marketing materials. Most of what we do is visible from the street, with half-finished statues sitting in the yard. People come to us because they want something that is carved by hand, not made in a factory. It takes a lot of hours and a lot of sweat to finish a single piece. We do not use any high-tech machines, just the same basic tools that have been used for years. The work is loud and it is dirty, but there is something satisfying about seeing a face emerge from a slab of rock. We stay open as long as there is daylight to see by. It is just a regular life of hard work here by the river.